


flowers on a funeral pyre

by jackgyeoms



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Brotherhood, Fluff and Angst, GOT7 as gods, Gen, Multi, There will be lots of feeling, i guess, its kind of like a creation story about gods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12855480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackgyeoms/pseuds/jackgyeoms
Summary: ‘What does that mean?’ Bambam questioned with concern heavy in his voice.Jinyoung felt the tug in the pit of his stomach, a calling so close, so strong, and he knew. He closed his eyes and muttered a blessing of passage.‘They made a sacrifice,’ he spoke, his voice calm, serene, as it always became when a soul was near, ‘Just not the usual kind.’-Once a year, the villages come together to give thanks and sacrifice of foods and goods for all the gods had done to them. But this year, the gift is different.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not sure whether this idea came from but i loved writing it. i have quite a few ideas for this story that i want to explore and i can't wait to keep going and see what you guys think.

 

It happened at the same time every year. The villages would come together and make sacrifices of food and gold and objects that people had poured love into over the years. It was a thank you for all that was done to protect them from harsh winters and invading forces. And for the gods who received, it was the only time of year that they could look down from their perch to the world of man and see humanity.

Upon the mountaintop, their vision was limited to the elements of the world that they controlled. Jaebum could see the sun, could make it shine bright upon grassy meadows, but the moon was a mystery to him. Mark could call the tides to the shoreline, could make the waves rocky and destructive to the boats of the enemies attempting to lay claim to land that wasn’t their own, but the life that dwelled within the waves were nothing to him.

Youngjae could hear the purrs and the howls and the calls of the animals in their domain, but couldn’t stop the harsh winds that the birds flew upon. Jinyoung could cradle the dead in his arms and walk their souls to a better place, but the living world was simply darkness to him. Jackson felt the love and the heartbreak that came with it, but had no notion what else was needed to survive in this world. Bambam knew of wealth and the metals that formed it which bent to his will, but he couldn’t understand the love between a parent and child. Yugyeom could call the moon to shine and see its reflection in lakes, but he’d never know the brightness of the day.

But for this one day, that changed. They could see all.

Youngjae seemed to enjoy the holiday the most. He’d wake his brothers up early and demand they be up and ready for the day at the most obscene of hours. No one had the heart to tell him to go away, not when he was smiling so brightly and looked so excited, so his siblings would drag themselves from their beds and trudge into breakfast and try their hardest not to fall asleep in their ambrosia.

‘I wonder what gifts we’ll receive this year,’ Youngjae pondered, wriggling in his seat, unable to control himself.

‘I could use some diamond,’ Bambam mused. His eyes shone like them as he thought of the prospects, of what he could do with just a little of the pressurized metal.

‘A wedding band,’ Jackson piped up, ‘the stories that come from such a simple thing…’

‘I want to see the sun,’ Yugyeom murmured. It was the same thing he wanted every year.

The time came – midday, and Jaebum hung the sun high in the sky and warmed the land to embrace the people for all they would give up. He’d always say, ‘this relationship goes two ways. We need humans as much as humanity needs us. It’s not something to be taken for granted.’

The gods gathered in the pavilion, the closest point between their world and the humans, and waited for the fires. Upon an altar, precious items were gathered and cleansed with fire to guide their journey to the god’s mountain. In the pavilion, a fire pit would flare to life and when it finally died, leave behind the sacrifice. 

There was a hum of excitement when the first flame began to rise. It was just a small light at their feet, but within moments it was growing, reaching up to touch the receivers. Jinyoung stretched out his hand, spread his fingers and sighed in contentment at the warmth on his palm. His world was always so cold and in this moment, the chill had evaporated.

‘Wait, something is different,’ Mark commented lowly.

‘They’re still growing,’ Jaebum’s eyebrows furrowed.

The fires never grew higher than their waists, instead stretching outwards to encompass the goods that were to be received. But that day, they grew taller, rising and rising until they could look Yugyeom in the eye. A sense of unease filled them, making the gods shift from foot to foot.

‘What does that mean?’ Bambam questioned with concern heavy in his voice.

Jinyoung felt the tug in the pit of his stomach, a calling so close, so strong, and he knew. He closed his eyes and muttered a blessing of passage.

‘They made a sacrifice,’ he spoke, his voice calm, serene, as it always became when a soul was near, ‘Just not the usual kind.’

‘W-what do you mean?’ Youngjae stammered.

Jinyoung opened his eyes. They glowed white with life taken.

The sight made Jackson recoil. ‘No, wait, that means-‘

‘Why would they?’

‘They’ve never…’

‘What does...’

The flames had reached their peak, and thumped with the beating of a heart. Jinyoung took a step closer, embraced the heat and began his duties. ‘It’s okay,’ he cooed, ‘It’s okay. You’re safe. I have you.’

A whimper. A noise that didn’t belong to any of the gods present. Jaebum cursed under his breath. Jackson clutched at his chest, over his heart, as he felt the heartbreak there.

Yugyeom grabbed onto Youngjae, who held onto him in return. Mark put his hand on the back of Youngjae, tried to be a calming force for the god that looked so pained. He’d been excited for this gift, and now, he wished they weren’t receiving it.

Jinyoung was still urging, still soothing. ‘I have you,’ he repeated his promise, ‘Take my hand.’

He reached a hand into the flames, and felt the cold when something without life wrapped its fingers around his palm. He could see her then. She was young. An innocent. A sacrifice made by desperate people. She was gaunt with skin paled from sickness, but she hadn’t always been like that. In the orange, he could see what she had once been before what was she now.

‘I’m sorry,’ he told her.

She opened her eyes to look at him, dark orbs that held more warmth than they should have with her life essence gone and in his hands. She parted her lips as if she were going to speak but no sound came out.

Jinyoung grasped her hand just a little bit tighter. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said again, and pulled her from the fire.

-

She hadn’t said anything. Jinyoung sat her on the bench that overlooked the human world, held her hand and murmured the words that only those at his door would ever hear. From a distance, the others watched, shaken and terrified and uncertain by what had been given to them.

‘Why?’ Jackson demanded. He was still holding his chest, the barrier between their world and the humans so thin that he felt everything, felt too much. It was tearing him apart - where was the love he coveted? Why did everything have to hurt so much?

Mark reached out and put his hand over Jackson’s, used the calm of the sea to soothe his brother’s heart, but his eyes were flared with the brutal anger of the ocean. The wild storm was visible when he made eye contact with Jaebum. ‘What should we do?’

Jaebum pushed a hand through his hair and looked to their ‘gift’. She was staring outwards, never blinking, not really seeing, and for the first time since he’d awoken with the power of the sun at his fingertips, he was at a loss. ‘I...’

Mark followed his stare. ‘Do the rules still apply when its human?’

The rules in the contract signed millennia ago that ensured harmony in the land. The gifts were the god’s property from the moment they stepped upon the mountain. They could not be returned. But this was a soul, a person, not bread freshly made that morning.

‘What must it be like for them to send her?’ Yugyeom whispered, voice hoarse. It was mostly to himself, but the others heard and expressions set solemnly. To sacrifice one of their own, they couldn’t -

‘She has been starved,’ Jinyoung spoke up, voice still soft and air, eyes never moving away from his charge, ‘A food shortage. The soil doesn’t accept life anymore.’

‘We don’t have control over that,’ Youngjae worried his bottom lip.

‘They’re desperate,’ Jackson muttered, ‘So desperate.’

He reached for Mark’s hand for the waves of calm when it felt like too much.

‘Fire,’ a soft voice, unfamiliar and broken as if it were not used to make any noise at all. It drew attention, and the sacrifice shifted, pulled her legs closer to her and suddenly appeared more alive than she should be.

‘What’s your name?’ Jinyoung spoke carefully. He had his hand on her elbow, a gentle touch to ground to this life.

‘I...I don’t remember,’ she croaked. Jinyoung nodded understandingly. He had seen it before, the distance between what was and what is, and how the mind struggles to adapt to it.

‘We have to call her something,’ Bambam complained.

‘Bam...’ Jaebum muttered as a warning.

‘Is there a name that seems familiar to you?’ Jinyoung asked carefully, gently. 

She opened her mouth and closed it, opened and formed vowels and consonants with her lips. A squeak, a mumble, and finally, ‘Ki...’

‘Ki? Just Ki?’ Jackson questioned.

Her eyebrows furrowed, and her expression creased with distress. Jinyoung hummed a noise that relaxed her features just so. ‘It’s okay,’ he assured, ‘You’re doing well.’

Youngjae crouched down to eye level and smiled earnestly. ‘I like Ki.’

She looked at him and blinked once with warm eyes. And then she smiled. It trembled at the edges as if the muscles were not used to the action - and they shouldn’t be, as death takes everything and leaves you cold - but it was a smile all the same. Youngjae seemed delighted, but for Jinyoung, there was something uncertain in the pit of his stomach. 

Ki reeked of death, yes, and his domain called for him to do his duty, but she held on to too much life. A smile. A warm look. A flush to her cheeks. It was uncomfortable, made Jinyoung’s skin itch equally as it made his power sing.

So that left him with one question that he wasn’t certain he would get an answer to: what was she? 

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Days dragged on and still, Ki lingered. She was a constant and horrific reminder of their weaknesses, their inability. Even as gifting day was left behind, as the veil between the world of humans and that of the gods grew stronger once more, her presence in their halls meant they could no longer truly be blind to human suffering.

When had it started, Mark thought. Was it a recent thing? Had it been going on for millennia? Why hadn’t they listened? Sometimes, when he looked at Ki, he wondered if Ki ever looked at them and thought the same. He would be if he were her.

He had asked just the once, two days into her stay, and she had looked at him as if she couldn’t see him. She blinked once, twice, mouthed silently for a few moments before finally stopping. He didn’t ask again and she wasn’t able to give an answer until late.

It had been at a dinner. Although they spent basically all of their time with one another, mealtimes were the only points were all seven would make a point to be together. That seven had become eight and whilst the home of the gods wasn’t home to anything human, they had ambrosia and they were willing to share the delicacy with their - gift? Guest? Fellow being? Mark wasn’t sure what to call her at this point.

They had shoved the chair between Jinyoung and Youngjae, by far the two who she was the most comfortable with. Each day, she stared down at the plate, took in the golden jelly and waited. Jinyoung said it was normal for spirits to lack an appetite, that a plate setting wouldn’t be necessary, but Jaebum felt it was only right to set her place, even if it were just for illusion's sake.

‘...starv...’ her voice was a murmur first, maybe wouldn’t even be heard if she weren’t surrounded by higher beings. They startled at the sound, turning with wide eyes, and she, in turn, glanced up at them. Her eyes were dark, like earth, and it was difficult to look away from them.

When she continued, her voice was stronger. ‘Starving. We were starving. Are starving. Have been starving.’ 

Jinyoung rested his hand on her elbow. ‘I know.’

Ki turned her stare to him. ‘We are starving.’

‘I know,’ Jinyoung repeated.

Her eyebrows furrowed. ‘We prayed. We are praying. Did you hear us?’ She didn’t give anyone a chance to answer, ‘Did you? We were so loud. We asked for help as often. We are desperate. Our children dying. You must have seen their souls. You helped them. You carried them to the Underworld. You heard us. So why didn’t you help? Why?’ she was shouting by the end.

Jinyoung stared back. Mark wasn’t sure if it were through choice or speechlessness if he were being honest.

The longer she went without an answer the more frustrated she became. She was shaking, cheeks flushed pink and tears filled her eyes, slipping down her cheeks when she clenched them shut. She made a noise of anguish and frustration before kicking back her chair. It wobbled and tilted and hit the floor. Ki didn’t look back as she swept away, carrying her cloud of rage with her.

‘She’s remembering,’ Jackson whispered. His expression had crumbled, lips pressed together. ‘She’s so sad.’

‘Did you know? That the humans were dying?’ Yugyeom questioned Jinyoung quietly.

Jinyoung tilted his head as if considering. ‘Possibly. I tend not to think about causes. My purpose is to guide and nothing else.’

Jaebum frowned but said nothing. He, of all people, understood the pressures and suffering of death that Jinyoung went through daily. They’d been together since the beginning and Jaebum knew how involved Jinyoung had once been and how it had broken him so entirely that he was permanently fractured.

Bambam pushed a hand through his hair. ‘Someone should go after her right? That’s what humans would do?’ 

Mark let his eyes linger on where Ki had disappeared and pushed his chair back. Eyes looked at him. ‘I’ll talk to her.’

Ki was by the pavilion, sitting upon the bench that she had been sat on when she first arrived. Although her garb had changed, she looked much the same as she did on that day. Shoulders hunched in on herself, head down. She fiddled with her fingers as she thought deeply.

Mark sat in the space next to her and angled his head towards the night sky. It was so much more beautiful up here than in the human world. The stars seemed brighter, the moon just that awe-inspiring. He rocked his feet from heel to toe to a beat that once he could hear.

‘Yugy always does such a great job,’ he mused, ‘don’t you think?’

It startled Ki from her thoughts, made her look to him and then the sky. That lost expression on her face had lifted ever so slightly, making room for wonder, and her hands had stilled. ‘It’s...brilliant,’ she breathed out.

They were quiet as they stared. They took in the moon and the stars, the blanket of night that was almost like velvet. Everything shone and sparkled in the most fantastic of ways. It felt good to sit and breath and take it in but questions remained unanswered and it was only so long before Ki couldn’t hold it in any longer.

‘Why?’ she murmured, ‘Why aren’t you helping us?’

‘We can’t,’ was the simple answer, but that only seemed to frustrate her more. Her voice rose, became heavy with distress as she demanded to know why not.

Mark tilted his head towards the stars and watched them as he debated the best way to explain. Humanity, he knew well, was something of an irrational species. The more panicked they became, the less clearly they thought. ‘Have you heard the story of JP?’

The sudden question seemed to startle Ki. She blinked once and those frustrated tears slipped from their canopy of her eyelashes. ‘I think...I was told that story a lot.’

Mark hummed. ‘No doubt. It’s a favourite when teaching little ones about the dangers of the individual ego,’ he mused. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, ‘JP was gifted the power of all and decided that should make him the god of all. He demanded the knee even from those he had not earned the loyalty of. He expected it because power is blinding and he believed himself chosen. But he didn’t understand that he had a duty, that these abilities were not his to control for his own will. He also didn’t understand that power can be taken away just as quickly as it has been given.’

‘I remember,’ Ki furrowed her eyebrows, ‘the people of the villages banned together to bring him down.’

‘And then the elders bound him and stripped him, leaving him a husk. Barely human, because all that power had left him less than any creature who had ever lived,’ Mark finished. ‘And since then, no one being has ever been able to exert control over all domains.’ He looked into her eyes then, making sure that she understood, ‘So our lack of help isn’t to do with want, but ability. Jaebum can make the sun shine brighter. Youngjae all for beasts to keep their distance from your crops or to offer themselves as prey for your hunters. I can bring water to your lakes and rivers. But we cannot make the soil accept the seeds and grow. It cannot listen to us, just as we cannot listen to it.’

Ki was quiet as she rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. She bit down on it thoughtfully. She didn’t say any more on the matter and neither did Mark. They simply sat together and watched the stars. 

-

‘You should have told us,’ Jaebum muttered into the darkness. They had shared a bedroom since the beginning and age had not changed that. Jaebum was a point of warmth in Jinyoung’s otherwise lifeless existence and in turn, Jinyoung kept Jaebum from burning too much and too fast. It was in the privacy of this shared space that Jaebum felt it right to raise his concerns.

Jinyoung blinked at the ceiling. It wasn’t uncommon for his roommate to chose the middle of the night as a time for conversing but the weight behind the words was new.  ‘Told you?’ he questioned absentmindedly.

‘About the dead.’

‘The dead aren’t your concern,’ he pointed out.

Jaebum let out a noise of frustration through his nose. ‘When it’s something like this, yes they are.’

Jinyoung frowned. ‘In what way?’

‘They’re starving Jinyoungie,’ Jaebum pointed out, his voice hoarse in a way that was startling, ‘ _ starving _ .’

‘We cannot help that,’ Jinyoung reminded.

‘That’s not the point,’ Jaebum exhaled heavily, ‘Look, it’s important okay? We might not be able to help but we could have tried. There are people we might have saved.’

Unlikely. Jinyoung stopped himself from saying the word. He knew Jaebum well enough that such a statement would not be well received. ‘Nothing can be changed now,’ he settled on.

‘No, it can’t,’ Jaebum conceded, ‘but an apology might not go amiss.’

The thought sat with Jinyoung for most of the evening. He found apologises for things that were out of one's control very strange but when he saw Ki at the breakfast table that following morning, smiling at something that Youngjae had said yet with eyes still so sad, he felt maybe, this once, that didn’t matter.

He found her by the pavilion after the meal. She was worrying her bottom lip between her fingers and staring off into nothingness, her eyes only filling with awareness when he made himself known.

‘Ki,’ he greeted.

‘Jinyoung,’ she copied, her voice low.

He bowed low before her. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Sorry?’ she echoed, ‘what for?’

‘I’ve been told I am quite crass at times, and I admit that life is something of a mystery to me,’ Jinyoung confessed, ‘Not raising any concerns about the number of souls I have held this past year was a mistake. I was unaware. I cannot do anything to change what has passed, but I extend my condolences.’

Jinyoung bowed low and Ki’s inhale caught in her throat. Never had she ever believed a being such as he would do such a thing.

‘I hope this is something you can accept,’ he finished.

He glanced up at her and once again, took note of the life within her. Her expression was open, her lips pink, her eyes sparkling - he was staring, he realised with a start, and straightened up.

‘Jinyoung,’ she murmured his name, ‘did you carry them well?’

‘I would never let them drop,’ Jinyoung promised, mildly offended that anyone would question his ability to usher spirits to their eternal life.

The assertion had Ki smiling, a soft upturn of lips. It made her eyes soften, the skin wrinkling at the edges. ‘I’m not going to say that I’m not grieving,’ she continued, ‘because I am. They are my people. But Mark explained that things aren’t as simple as they seem, so I am pleased that you did your duty well. That’s all I can ask for right?’

Jinyoung jerked his head in a nod. ‘The past cannot change but I know the others will do their best to help the future,’ he assured.

‘And you? What will you do?’ Ki inquired.

Jinyoung inclined his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. ‘I will guide the souls who did not make it,’ he stated.

‘Is that a promise?’

‘Of course.’

And then she smiled, teeth baring and for one split second, Jinyoung felt an uptick in his heartbeat. 

‘That’s all I can ask for,’ she decided.

Jinyoung spent the hours of the day guiding spirits with gentle hands and soothing words, and not focusing at all on the way that his chest remained far too tight for the entire time.

 

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr [@jacksonwng](http://ussfranklin.co.vu) for fic updates and got7 goodness
> 
> feel free to leave me fic requests!
> 
> :)


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